Newport News police and fire departments investigate a suspected meth lab in the woods behind the back corner of Sam's Club Saturday January 5, 2019

Newport News police and fire departments investigate a suspected meth lab in the woods behind the back corner of Sam's Club Saturday January 5, 2019 (Rob Ostermaier / Daily Press)

Fire Academy

There is an extraordinary opportunity to learn about the Newport News Fire Department. It’s informative, fun and attendees will meet the outstanding men and women who serve the citizens of Newport News.

Did I mention it is free? Because it is. You also receive CPR and first aid training, as well as the opportunity to learn about fire operations and equipment; fire service traditions; fire investigations, and the bomb team, dive team and Haz-Mat team operations.

You also have the opportunity to tour the fire stations and ride along with a battalion chief for a shift. You will meet citizens from every corner of Newport News, and lastly, you will be walking among giants — our firefighters/EMTs.

Registration closes on Monday. For more information, call 757-247-2332 or go online to nnva.gov/2112/Citizen-Fire-Academy.

Mike Kuhns

Newport News

Unfair judgment

It is absolutely ridiculous that reporters dug up a yearbook from 1968 and are judging historic behavior by today’s standards; and I add that today’s standards have reached a level of unreasonable, hypersensitivity.

Even people at work that are members of races other than caucasian believe this is ridiculous.

Every one of us, of every race, has something in our past that we may not be proud of. But we should not be put on trial by the media, found guilty and asked to give up our career as the sentence.

It’s time to let the bygone era remain exactly that; bygone.

KC Burleson

Yorktown

Best of bad choices

If we are to continue judging our elected officials by what they did 30 or 40 years ago, we will severely limit the pool of people willing to seek office. I would not like to be judged today on my ignorance of 50 years ago.

I am by no means excusing the actions and alleged actions of our state officials. I’m saying that today, more than ever, we need the most qualified leaders we can find. To eliminate them from consideration based on long past actions and ignore more recent deeds that prove they have learned and grown is misguided.

I personally am tired of voting for the best of two bad choices. I can only wonder what the choices would look like if the state and national campaign processes were dominated by an individual’s qualifications rather than the by politics of personal destruction.

Jerry Varner

Achilles

Homegrown energy

A pair of Virginia lawmakers recently introduced the Defend Our Coast Act, which proposes banning offshore drilling in the Mid-Atlantic.

Anti-development groups and well-funded, elite activists applauded the proposal, saying it was a sign that legislators were finally standing up for Virginians.

Which ones? About 11 percent of Virginia’s population lives in poverty. That’s more than 896,000 Virginians.

They, plus millions of others on fixed incomes or living paycheck to paycheck, see a double-digit percentage of their take-home pay go toward energy costs like electricity and gasoline, dangerously more than what those other income brackets pay.

Offshore development can help lower these unnecessarily high expenses — if done safely.

Innovation in energy technology, better-quality techniques and an array of state of federal regulations that remain the safest globally ensures we can do just that and protect the environment, plus reduce imports from foreign, and often hostile, countries with far less stringent rules and regulations.

That’s not just my opinion but also former President Barack Obama’s, who once said: “I would rather us —with all the safeguards and standards that we have — be producing our oil and gas, rather than importing it, which is bad for our people, but is also potentially purchased from places that have much lower environmental standards than we do.”

It's hard to dispute that — or how offshore energy production, wind included, can help combat energy poverty by steadying the delicate supply-demand scale and meeting surging energy needs.